Ewan McGregor, Mary Elizabeth Winstead Used Intimacy Coordinator When Filming ‘A Gentleman In Moscow’ Despite Being Married: “It’s Still Necessary”

Ewan McGregor and his wife, actress Mary Elizabeth Winstead, are set to co-star in the new Showtime drama A Gentleman in Moscow. McGregor opened up in a recent interview about his experience filming with his wife of two years, revealing that they used an intimacy coordinator when filming sex scenes together for the show.

“It’s still necessary, because it’s also about the crew,” McGregor recently told Radio Times. “And it’s odd to be naked in front of people, it’s odd to be intimate in front of the camera.”

He compared it to using a choreographer for a dance scene. “It’s an important part of the work now, because it’s somebody that the director and actors meet in the middle,” he said.

The actor also noted that intimacy coordinators can advocate for younger actors who may feel pressured to appear nude or perform an intimate scene for a project.

“My daughter is 22. If an older, famous director goes to a 22-year-old and says, ‘I want you to be naked in this scene,’ that actress might feel, ‘Oh, my God, I’ve got to do it, my career might depend on it,’” he said. “And then five years after that, she could look back and go, ‘I wish I hadn’t. Why am I naked in that scene? It’s unnecessary.’”

A Gentleman in Moscow follow’s McGregor’s character, Count Alexander Rostov, after he gets banished to an attic room of the Hotel Metropol, where he lives through some of the most tumultuous years of Russian history. There, he meets Winstead’s character, Anna Urbanova, described as “a glamorous, independent and self-made film actress, at the height of her fame.”

McGregor certainly knows a thing or two about performing in the nude.

His daughter, actress Clara McGregor, recently revealed that she once had an “uncomfortable” experience in high school when she watched a movie of his that showed him “full-frontally nude, the whole time.”

“Watching [The Pillow Book] at 17 with your entire high school class, it’s more like they’re watching me watch that film … which was interesting,” she said.

“It was uncomfortable,” she later added. “I think they also probably felt a little uncomfortable.”

A Gentleman in Moscow premieres on Paramount+ with Showtime March 29.